I had the chance to hit up Brian Jarrard today and I asked him about the shiny new achievements coming your way tomorrow.

There’s an update coming out this week that has new achievements for Halo 3. Can you let us in on what they are?

The Halo 3 title update is being released on Tuesday!  This release is mostly addressing some behind the scenes improvements and tools to help us maintain a fun, competitive playing environment for fans but as icing on the cake, we’ve included TEN brand new achievements (250 gamer points) that are retroactively applied to Halo 3. Here’s a  quick overview:

  • Vidmaster Challenge: Lightswitch (0 points) – Get to the rank of Lieutenant in any playlist in the new EXP progression system.
  • Vidmaster Challenge: 7 on 7 (0 points) – Enter into any ranked or social playlist with 7 EXP on the 7th of the month.
  • Vidmaster Challenge: Annual (0 points) – After 9/25/08, complete Halo on 4-player Legendary LIVE co-op, with Iron, and everyone in Ghosts.

  • Double Double (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get two Double Kills during any ranked or social match.
  • Poor Yorick (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 3 Oddball melee kills during any ranked or social match.
  • Came…From…Behind (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get 3 assassinations during any ranked or social match.
  • Defend This (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get a flag melee kill during any ranked or social match.

  • Flag Dropped (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 2 flag carrier kills during any ranked or social match.
  • Road Rage (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 5 Warthog chaingun kills during any ranked or social match.
  • Look Both Ways (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get a Splatter Spree during any ranked or social match.

The first 3 achievements are part of the “Vidmaster Challenge” and while they don’t award gamer points, they do lead to something that should be of great interest to fans. We’ll have more to say about that later, but for now it’s important to note that the special co-op achievement won’t actually be activated until 9/25. October 7th will be your first shot at the “7 on 7” achievement and the “Lightswitch” can be worked towards as soon as the update is released.

The remaining 7 achievements will get you 250 gamer points and can all be earned by playing multiplayer games on any of the Legendary DLC maps (Blackout, Avalanche and Ghost Town).

Are these things you noticed fans asking for or doing in games that deserved recognition?

Well fans have definitely been clamoring for more Halo 3 achievements, certainly in light of the new maps that have been released since the game launched.  The specific achievements are meant to be fun and reward players for various activities but we also listened to feedback and made them more accessible – they can be earned in ranked or social matches.

Updates have typically been patches or paid content adding to gameplay. What made you decide to offer this kind of content instead of something more traditional like maps or horse armor?

Well, we have already released 7 new multiplayer maps since Halo 3 has shipped – 6 of which were at least initially offered at a premium. The Heroic maps eventually became free while the Legendary map pack has had a price reduction but is still a premium download. Cold Storage was a special release for Bungie Day (7/7) and was free from the get-go.  After careful consideration, we just couldn’t find a way to fit horse armor into the Halo universe. Perhaps next time.

In general though, this title update gave us an opportunity to further improve the online experience for players, refresh the game a bit as we come upon the one year anniversary and reward fans who purchased the Legendary maps by offering them 250 gamerpoints and 7 new achievements.

Will these achievements cost us anything?

The title update itself is free and will be required/auto-applied when you log into Halo 3. Seven of the achievements are only accessible by playing games on the Legendary DLC maps though so you will need to have those installed on your console. The other three achievements are fair game to anyone who owns Halo 3 as is the new playlist rating system.

Do you have anything coming that you’d like to tease us with?

Nothing I’m at liberty to discuss right now but fans who are paying close attention have already noticed that something is afoot over at Bungie.net. Stay tuned.

Thanks to Brian for answering our questions and head on over to Bungie.net for everything Halo.